Burglar
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: In another timeline, Peter Parker was driven to burglary, and when he gained his spider powers he plans on carrying on without any thoughts of becoming a superhero.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer - I don't own Spider-Man. I'm not making any money from it.

Feedback would be nice.

* * *

Burglar.

_I can't believe I'm actually about to do this, seriously about to do this! _Peter Parker thought to himself as he walked towards the door of the house; fortunately, he had found a way into the front garden which didn't involve climbing. Peter hated climbing. He hated any kind of physical activity since his body was an embarrassment, and he wasn't fast or strong, or capable of standing up for himself towards the likes of Flash Thompson.

Peter pushed the jock out of his mind; he had a lot more on his mind than what some meatheaded jock with delusions of grandeur thought. He had a difficult task to perform as it was.

The owner of the house had left only a few minutes ago.

Bang on time. He had been watching the house for the last three weeks, observing and studying the owners' patterns. He knew that at this time of the morning, the owner had left the house Peter turned around, looking into the trees where he had planted the drones he had flown up there three weeks ago. It had cost him quite a bit. Okay. Drones weren't that expensive, but in a situation where every single cent was like gold, it hadn't been easy getting them, although Peter was thankful he had purchased them before his family's current financial disaster.

Peter stepped hesitantly up the steps leading to the door. He could feel his heart pounding away inside of his chest, and he had swallowed down the bile he could feel rising inside his chest. As he walked out up the steps, Peter felt as if he were being watched by a firing squad that was somewhere hidden in the trees or a platoon of commandos who'd been hired by the owner of the house to protect it from someone like him.

Peter swallowed, knowing he was being stupid, but he couldn't help it. He had never done anything like this before in his entire life, and he was scared out of his wits, and he was so scared he half expected someone to appear and shock him back into reality.

But nobody did.

He was on his own.

Peter took a deep breath and reached into his pocket and pulled out the set of bump keys he had bought with whatever cash he had managed to scrimp and save (the majority of it had been given to his aunt and uncle for the upkeep of the house). Peter took another deep breath to steady his nerves as he looked between the keys and the lock.

He had been preparing for this moment for the last three weeks. He had been practicing the key on the door of his own house while his aunt and uncle had been away at the bank to see if they could do anything for the Parker's financial woes, though of course, the banks had given them some gobbledegook about not being able to help, but Peter couldn't find it within himself to guess their reasons; they weren't going to help.

Why couldn't organisations like banks stick out their necks to actually be honest and say bluntly they can't help?

Peter let out a sigh and he decided to just get it over and done with - he was wasting time, and the longer he stayed out here, holding the bump key, the quicker it would be before somebody came and confronted him - and he decided to get it over and done with even if he couldn't believe he was prepared to go this far, but ever since he had seen the way the financial woes were creating friction between Uncle Ben and Aunt May and he had decided to take this step even if it was radical and desperate even by the standards of half of the kids in the school he went too, Peter had been steeling himself ever since. He shoved one of the bump keys into the lock and he hit it with a hammer he had brought with him, before he turned the key, lifting up the rag he had prepared around his face in case there were any CCTV cameras inside the house that he hadn't managed to detect.

He was inside.

Peter walked inside. "Hello? Hello, is anyone there?" he called, making sure just at the last minute before he was about to even call out to make sure his voice was disguised; the cameras were a possibility, but someone picking out his voice might play it on the news and it would be recognised by nearly everyone at Midtown High, not to mention his own street.

No answer.

Peter knew the man who lived here lived alone, but that didn't necessarily mean he didn't have someone already here. _On the other hand, if another burglar is here, then why would they answer me? _

He smiled nervously under the rag he wore underneath his disguise - not much of one - and he got moving. He went upstairs first slowly, remembering everything he had read up on burglary to help him prepare for this moment. All of those Youtube videos he had watched, those articles he had read, had all done a world of good.

The only problem was he had needed some confidence to get started, and as he walked up the stairs towards the bedroom Peter had gained slivers of the confidence he'd needed, and as he walked into the bedroom he looked around and found only a few dollars and only a few cents lying around. Peter held the money in his hands, and he pushed it into his pocket.

Peter searched the rest of the second floor for any other cash, and he found an office. _Looks more hopeful. _

It certainly was.

Peter found two money boxes in one of the drawers, neatly arranged near what looked like an accounts book. He picked one of them up, and he tried to open it. Locked. He tried the second. The same thing, they were both locked tightly. He checked around the desk and in the drawers for any sign of the keys to the locks. No such luck.

Wherever the keys were, they were not here.

He shook them and he heard the distinct rattle of something metallic in both of them, so he put the two boxes inside his backpack and he looked around the rest of the room for anything else he could pinch. To his disappointment, there was nothing there. Peter walked out of the room and he went downstairs.

Peter was about to look around the rest of the house to see if there was anything else he could pinch and take with him when he suddenly heard the sound of a car pulling in. Peter reacted quickly before he was rooted to the ground by his own terror, and he ran through the house to the room next to the front door, and making sure he couldn't be seen he pressed a hand against his mouth and nose to quieten down the loud gasps he was letting out while he waited.

Peter could feel himself shaking and gasping, his lungs heaving with the effort. He cursed his physical frailty, he cursed not being able to run or jog longer distances but he was thankful the fear he was feeling at the moment had given him the strength he had needed to run this far, and so quickly but it was still a near thing.

While he was trying desperately hard to remain quiet though it was hard since his lungs were sucking in so much air and making him sound like a human vacuum cleaner while he tried to think of something he could do to escape without being seen, Peter was now starting to wish he had gone through the kitchen and out of the back, but since he didn't know if the garden was overlooked by any other houses and since he was near the front door now and there was nothing he could do about it until he was sure the car outside left, Peter was also trying to stop himself from panicking.

He knew it wouldn't help.

He knew if he made one wrong sound, he would be caught and he hadn't brought anything with him which he could use to fight back with. That and his physical frailties meant any hope he would have had in fighting back were nil.

What was the homeowner, if it was the homeowner - for all he knew, it could have been the postman - doing back here so soon?

Peter had been _so certain _the homeowner wouldn't be back for a couple of hours, giving him more than enough time to go over the place. So what was happening? Peter went very still when he heard a noise coming from the door, and he moved the door so then he had a good view through the gap but the owner wouldn't see him. He was torn between stepping around the door and confessing what he had done, but he knew he wouldn't because not only would it shatter Uncle Ben and Aunt May's lives and hearts, he also knew he had to continue going through with this burglary. All of the jobs he had applied for recently had so far not replied to him, or they had simply turned him down flat either without a word or without any sign they were thinking about calling him in for an interview.

As much as he hated to admit it to himself, stealing was perhaps a much better alternative. At least with burglary, he had the chance of making money quickly without waiting weeks and weeks for interviews. He had already sent off a dozen applications off already. Nothing, but he had planned for burglary long before he had started since the idea had popped into his brain.

The door opened and the homeowner walked in. At the sight of the man this close and personal, Peter tensed, and through the gap in the door, he watched as the man walked through the house and into a room Peter knew was the kitchen thanks to the quick look he'd taken of the ground floor. Peter remained very still. He was torn between rushing out through the door, whether or not he risked being seen, though he knew he would probably be caught easily, and just remaining as still as he could.

Footsteps coming through the house from the kitchen made his mind up. The homeowner was walking back towards the front door carrying a sports bag in his hand and a briefcase in the other hand. Peter kept very still as the homeowner walked through the hall, and out of the door, but he didn't move an inch even as he heard the sounds of the man's footsteps outside the front door, his fear heightening his sense of sound. He heard the sound of the car wheels skidding on the ground as they suddenly rolled into life, and he heard the sounds of the car's engine moving away until he could no longer hear it.

Peter finally moved after about ten minutes, looking around for any sign of the homeowner, though he knew he was being stupid.

Taking a look outside, Peter breathed out in relief when he saw there wasn't anyone outside and the car was gone. Relieved, Peter went to the front door, and after taking a quick cautious look outside, he opened the door and was out. He had lost his nerve, and he felt he had done a good job in getting into the house and hiding when he had needed to.

Once he was out and away he headed home but not before he took down the cameras he'd used to spy on the homeowner to plan his burglary, but he made sure to take off the rag he'd wrapped around his mouth and nose.

* * *

By the time he returned home, he had completely shed his burglar guise. Walking to the door, he took out his house key and he could tell his aunt and uncle weren't here. Peter guessed they were still out there, trying to find the cash to keep them going. Peter hoped it went well, but for now, he had the task of getting the money boxes opened.

Peter went up the stairs and he dumped his things on his bed and he opened up the backpack and drew out the money boxes and he went downstairs to the basement. He was lucky his aunt and uncle had loaned him space, especially after Uncle Ben had taught him everything he himself knew about working with tools.

While Uncle Ben wasn't really good with electrical appliances or plumbing, he knew enough to get by, and he had taught Peter everything he knew. Okay, it might not have been too much, but it was enough for Peter to get started, and as he had gotten better with science and mechanics, he would conduct experiments with different gadgets in a trial and error system to show him what his limitations were.

Peter gently fixed the toolbox into a vice to hold it down and tight before he went to prepare a drill, and he brought the tool over and he used it to drill open the lock until the money box's lock was broken into. Peter gently loosened the vice and he placed the money box gently on the worktop before he slowly went around and opened it cautiously; he knew he was being paranoid, but after everything he had been through, and everything he had heard about some of the things people did in order to feel truly secure, he felt he had the right to feel worried.

He had known for a long time now many people - he himself used this for his own laptop and his mobile - could track down things which had been stolen from them.

When he looked inside the box and found it was full of nothing but cash once he had run the recently downloaded app into his mobile in preparation for his burglary career over the box, he sighed with relief although he knew he would need to be just as careful when he opened up the second box.

As he counted the money, Peter's eyes widened in relief and delight.

There was over $700 in this one box alone, more than enough for his family to live off of for a while, although he had no idea how he was going to give it to his family. Peter was sure he could think of something, but he needed time to properly think of a way which would not make anybody suspicious of where it had come from.

The second box was just as easy to open up and like the previous box he had opened it up cautiously, there was no camera. The second box contained about $800, that combined with the few notes he had which added up the amount of cash he'd pinched to around $1,512 although he had no idea just yet how many cents he had stolen.

But as he looked at the dollars right in front of him, Peter couldn't believe how easy the burglary had gone despite the homeowner coming in so suddenly like that, but he didn't care. Okay, it had been a near miss and he had been lucky enough not to get caught out like he'd been terrified of being caught, but now he had committed the burglary he realised there was nothing to it at all. Yeah, it was terrifying at first, but somehow it was thrilling at the same time.

All that mattered was he had gotten away with it, and he knew something else.

He wanted to do it again.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. I just own this story, a parallel timeline where Peter Parker wasn't a hero.

Feedback would be nice.

* * *

Burglar.

Underneath his face mask, Peter was smiling; alright, being able to stick to walls and look down at the floor from where he was might be disorientating and he ended up worrying about why his fear of heights didn't kick in even though he'd had his spider powers for three months now, and he still had expectations he would feel dizzy looking down on the ground.

Peter had to curse the windbag who was still talking on the phone. He had been in the jewellery shop for the last half an hour sticking to the wall, or keeping out of sight of the CCTV cameras while he waited for the best part; the jeweller always opened the safe and placed inside it all the money earned by the ship and several other things.

The safe was the crown jewel (no piece of jewellery pun intended) of the upcoming burglary, even with all of the jewellery in the rest of the shop. Peter knew where the safe was, it was built inside the desk. He knew the safe didn't have a combination dial or keypad. He knew it wasn't opened by a conventional key. Its outer door was completely smooth, and it was opened by a cable threaded into a filing cabinet which was connected to a special file folder inside the cabinet.

Peter knew that. He also didn't have any problems reaching the safe since it was currently opened. The only problem was the jeweller was still speaking to someone here inside the shop, and there was no sign of him leaving any time soon.

_Come on. Come on, finish the call and leave. _

Peter let out a slow sigh as he remained on the ceiling, looking down at the jeweller. It was just so strange, being here when all of his previous burglaries had always taken place when no-one was around. How things had changed.

_How things had changed…_

_How have things changed over the last two years? So many things…_

Yes, becoming a burglar after spending his entire life as a good, law-abiding geek had certainly changed his life, even if his taken a turn he had never once imagined. When he had burgled that first house, which had resulted in a brief burst of media activity which didn't last too long since the homeowner was just one man without anything juicy to keep the story going on, Peter had gone on to burgle other houses. As he had gone on he had gained more confidence and experience, and suddenly everything seemed to be going right for him and his family because Peter had always lacked the type of confidence which came naturally to others.

Okay, sure, he hadn't gained confidence the normal way, something Peter knew was impossible to achieve in his case, but he didn't care about what he had needed to do to gain it. After the first burglary, he had taken a good long and hard look at his methods. He also took a look at what other burglaries did; he had become convinced and he was still convinced even to this day the reason why many burglars who were prolific got caught was because they burgled houses and apartments in the city too frequently, and they either became too overconfident and they made some stupid mistake which at the time of the burglary itself looked like nothing to worry about but when the police found it jungle drums would boom, or they burgled houses in a specific pattern which became predictable over time.

When he had begun his own burglary career he had known from the off he would need to take steps to ensure he wasn't locked up. Peter knew he was in no condition to survive prison, and beyond that, his own aunt and uncle would _die _if he were locked up. So he had begun committing burglaries once a month or so. Maybe two, but no more than three at a time, and he was always careful not to leave anything behind which would incriminate him.

_And then I got my spider powers. _

Okay, while he had gained some confidence because of his moonlighting as a thief, Peter was still treated with contempt by the rest of his classmates. He was still picked on by Flash and the others, still ignored by girls, and there was nothing he could do about it. Oh, he had tried more than once, about a thousand times, to try to improve his status on the food chain in the school. No such luck.

And then there was that trip to Oscorp. Peter honestly was grateful for the visit, not only because he had the opportunity to see scientists and engineers work on projects that would have something to do with the future, but he was still surprised they had been experimenting with genetically engineered spiders, with venom potent enough to genetically re-write someone's DNA so then they would have the abilities of a spider including being able to shoot out webbing.

Oaky, he still _wasn't sure _how he stuck to walls, although he had found his hands were sticky afterwards, which showed some kind of adhesive was used to help him stick to the surfaces. And it was so strong every time he yanked his hands away, little pieces of plaster or brick would come away. He wasn't sure how the scientists had done that, or even why Norman Osborn would go so far as to order a genetic engineering project involving spiders, but Peter genuinely didn't care.

He had only gone into the lab because he had become tired of being in Flash's company, and he had wanted to have a look around the laboratory, at all the advanced technology that was everywhere. Peter didn't know how extensive the genetic rewriting was, although he had found out enough to know he was stronger, faster, lighter on his feet, he could shoot out lines of webbing which, after a bit of practice especially after he had made a couple of wrist bracelets to help him control the webbing he was shooting out, and after a bit of practice he had learnt how to properly aim it, he could scale walls and hang or walk up and down a ceiling without any trouble especially since the adhesive he was sure was related to the webbing somehow, making him guess the scientists had realised there was something wrong with the microscopic hairs spiders had on their limbs to help them adhere to sheer surfaces. Whatever the reason, Peter didn't care.

This was his first burglary with his spider powers, and he wanted to get a move on if only the jeweller would just leave him to it. Peter had been sticking to the ceiling with a clear view inside the office where the safe was kept in, and the only way for the jeweller to spot him if he suddenly looked up would be if he looked around and through the window into the other room, upwards, and then he would spot Peter.

The jeweller laughed. "Okay, sure, I'll see you then. Anyway, I've got to go….Okay. Bye." With a sigh of relief, the jeweller finally placed the handset down as he cut off the call. "Thank god that's over,"

_Truer words were never said, _Peter thought to himself as he watched as the jeweller finished up with his work and he placed a small sack of money inside the safe along with a box of diamonds and a few gold ingots which Peter presumed would be moulded into rings or necklaces, but it also made him wonder to himself how he was going to deal with them himself since they would be hard to sell.

_What about if I sold them in other countries; hmm, that would take a fair amount of research into how gold can be sold, but I think I can handle it, although those diamonds are also a concern. Still, I can work out the details later._

When at last the jeweller was finished and he turned off the lights to leave, Peter tensed himself while the jeweller walked out of the office and locked it tight - Peter wasn't worried about that, thanks to his powers he would be out of here easily even if he cursed the fact he would be leaving behind physical evidence for what he had done, and even worse the police might get it into their brains a superpowered criminal had managed to break in, and mutants were under enough pressure as it was, though he didn't know for sure if what he was about to do now would make any difference.

Peter sighed under the balaclava and he _willed _himself down while he prepared for the landing on the floor (he had learnt the hard way he could only stick to walls if he actually pressed himself against them, if he willed himself to stick to them; when he wanted to just lean on the wall or jump down from a ceiling, all he really needed to do was to _will _himself down), and he landed silently on the floor while his leg muscles absorbed the impact.

Peter stood up and walked to the desk and pulled off the panel hiding the safe. Once it was off, he went to the filing cabinet and he pulled up the file that was coloured red, and he could hear the metallic sound of the cable sliding before he heard a clicking noise.

The safe was open.

Peter pulled everything he felt he could steal out of the safe, though he was dubious about the small gold ingots - yeah, he might have a few thoughts of simply seeking them abroad, he wasn't certain… In the end, he decided just to take them, and he put them into his backpack. He could feel the ingots of solid gold weigh down the pack, but his spider strength easily compensated for it.

Once he was finished with the safe Peter opened the window by pushing it outward with his strength to make it look like it had been prised open from the outside though he did wonder if some bright detective would take one look and think it was the other way around. Peter just shrugged his shoulders and he went on his way, he effortlessly snapped the door lock and walked into the main store.

Peter had already knocked out the CCTV in the office with a little bit of webbing which he knew would dissolve in a couple of hours, so by the time he left it wouldn't matter. Once there he started opening up the different cases and he scooped up handfuls of jewellery that he could see.

Again, he would need to think through how he was going to move the jewellery, mostly because he didn't know anyone in the city who was a burglar in turn and knew of fences who could get rid of the stuff with little effort. Peter did think that he could get luck elsewhere when the heat died down, but he decided to think about that later when he had the time. He hummed a tune under his breath as he opened another case effortlessly, and he dragged a number of bracelets.

Peter was just getting into his stride when he paused when he began to feel his spider sense tingling. The moment he felt the sense kick in, he immediately looked around for the cause, and he found it quickly when he saw two torchlights heading towards the shop. He could see the lights shining through the windows when suddenly there was more than one beam.

Peter leapt into the air quickly when he heard voices.

"Make sure the alarms are knocked out."

"Okay."

Through the windows, he could overhear the sounds of tools being taken out. Peter frowned underneath his mask, knowing there would be an alarm box outside, but he wondered how long it would take for them to disable it.

"Get started," he heard someone outside say at the same time, he noticed the beam of a torchlight being shone on the door itself, and a huge distorted shadow appeared. Thinking that was good enough for him especially when the blinding flash and the flame of a cutting torch ignited, Peter leapt upwards arms and hands outstretched, he pressed himself against the ceiling and rapidly dashed out of the room.

When he got to the window, he dashed outside and scaled the top of the building before he shot a web-line off into the distance. Peter couldn't believe how fortuitous the heist on the jewellery store was. As he swung away and headed back towards Queens, Peter couldn't help but ask himself how they would feel when they found out they had been wasting their time, but he didn't care. With a bit of luck, he thought with a mental shrug, the robbers would be the ones to feel the heat, not him, though if they weren't then he wasn't completely worried.

As long as he kept his head down there was little chance of the police catching up with him.

While it was easy for him to get away with the burglary, making sure everything he had stolen was hidden was hard; Aunt May and Uncle Ben weren't the type to nose their way into his life, but that didn't mean they couldn't find a diamond ring or one of the gold ingots by accident. One of the advantages of not having spider powers had been he had been limited in what he could take, but now, thanks to the spider strength and agility he was now capable of, there was almost no limit about what he could steal, so it was now hard for him to see his own limitations.

The good news was he was about to be moving into the city, which meant he could relieve some of the fear he felt each time he burgled someone that his aunt and uncle would find something he'd taken. Yeah, he had Harry Osborn around, but Peter wasn't worried; while he liked Harry, his best friend wasn't the type of person to search through anyone's things, but he would still take precautions while they went to college.

Peter slipped in through the window and he gently placed his backpack under the bed - hardly the most imaginative place to stash something, but it would do for tonight, and he slipped out of his clothes and took off the light pair of shoes and gloves he had worn, and he climbed into his bed.

He had no idea how things would go with his new powers, but Peter hoped it was as easy as it had seemed to have gone tonight; okay, so there had been another bunch of burglars coming to the shop to commit a burglary of their own, but he had not only gotten there first, he had cleared out the entire shop.

If it was going to be that simple, Peter doubted he'd have any trouble making a fortune.


End file.
